Brits are reluctant to throw away old clothes because they are waiting to lose some weight

Research by Weight Watchers found that women only wore 45 per cent of their clothes, with 55 per cent – worth a huge £5.4bn – languishing in on clothes rails and in drawers.

Men are nearly as bad, wearing just 53 per cent of their clothes, leaving 47 per cent – worth £5.1bn – gathering dust.

The main excuse for not throwing out the unworn clothes in their wardrobes was that they no longer fitted or that they were waiting for them to “come back into fashion.”

A total of 25 per cent of the 2,000 people polled – 1,000 women and 1,000 men – however, said they didn't want to throw the clothes out as they planned on wearing them again when they shed some weight.

Weight Watchers estimate that the 60m adults living in the UK stash away 588m unworn items of clothes, with women hoarding 365m items and men 223m items.

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Women admitted to wearing less than half of the clothes they own

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If put together the unworn clothes would stretch more than 18,000 miles, the equivalent of London to New York five times.

Nearly one-in-10 of the 2,000 people polled said they would not ditch old clothes as they were waiting for the clothes to “come back into fashion.”

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One-in-10 Brits hoard old clothes in case they come back into fashion one day

Julia Westgarth, of Weight Watchers, said: "This research reveals we are a nation of clothes hoarders, collecting outfits in our wardrobes in the hope that one day we will be able to fit back into them or that they will come back into fashion.

"Fashion fads are out of our control, but a little weight loss could unlock a whole back catalogue of clothes."